The healing power of Cycle-Dance
A child or a teenager in a wheelchair can also enjoy dancing. This is one of the activities of Teletón, one of Chile’s most notorious charity events.
In 1978 Teletón started as a 27 hours non-stop TV show to raise money for disabled childs and later became an NGO. Chileans annually donate money to support the infrastructure and the specialized team of professionals who help children with their treatments. This includes medical, psychological and emotional support too.
This year the Teletón event will be held between November 27 and 28. The goal is to collect 28,000 million pesos ($39.228,000 USD). The sponsor bank will open its doors during the 27 hours so people can donate money to the 24500–3 account. Big companies also donate big sums too.
The Teletón has a lot of activities to assist in rehabilitation. One is through art. Children paint whatever they want and later the foundation puts their paintings in cases for mobile phones or in ceramic dishes and then they sell it. The NGO also focuses in sports — Chile’s has very good paralympic tennis players — and every year the parents organize a camping for their kids.
But my favorite activity of Teletón is cycle-dance, where childs and teenagers in wheelchairs dance with dancers from an academy. Together they show to the country that everything is possible. As part of one of my reporting classes I have been going to the training sessions lately and is amazing how happy they are, away from traditional therapies.
I think Teletón is an incredible activity to remind the country that there always will be people who need help, and cycle-dance is an special moment where we can see all the effort and time that these persons make, not just for their own happiness, but for everybody who watches them.
Do your cities have charity events like this?
